Scotland Office
A Scotland Office spokesman said:
The Secretary of State has passed 150 pages of evidence on this issue to the Scottish government already. The Scotland Office will also provide that material to the members of the new group to assist them.
The responses to the expert group set up by the Advocate General showed overwhelming support for the Supreme Court maintaining its important role in devolution issues.
The First Minister clearly wants to see one conclusion in particular. It is one we disagree with and one the previous expert group also rejected.
It is extremely important the new group looks objectively at the issue of justice rather than geography. We have already pointed out it seems odd to prefer to go to Strasbourg with its huge backlog of cases and no Scottish judges when 2 sit on the Supreme Court.
There has a been a great deal of misinformation about the role of theSupreme Court in recent weeks. The idea that the independence of Scots law is under threat is simply wrong.
The fact remains that only a tiny number of cases go to the Supreme Court every year and the High Court remains Scotlands highest criminal court.
The only way that criminal proceedings reach the Supreme Court from Scotland iswhere there isa devolution issue,typically where it is alleged that there has been a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights bya Scottish Minister.
Thecourt only rarely grants permission indevolution issues arising from Scottish criminal proceedings:it refuses to hear manymore appealsinsuch matters than it decides to allow.Since 2009, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear two cases from Scotland on criminal matters, against around a dozen criminal cases from England and Wales.
The High Court of Justiciaryremains the senior appeal court for criminal cases in Scotland.